50 years ago

El Centro Community Hospital, which could use a few rich uncles, may benefit financially by an antitrust suit won by Uncle Sam against four major drug firms that were charged with price-rigging.

The hospital stands to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for prices it paid on drugs during the past 10 years — if it is successful — along with the California attorney general’s office and other participating hospitals, in getting a settlement from the four convicted drug companies.

Thomas C. Lynch, attorney general, along with the El Centro Community Hospital and other interested hospitals in California, is mapping a gigantic civil suit against the firms which is expected to be filed soon in federal court.

They are acting under the antitrust laws which permit victims to sue for recovery of three times the damages actually suffered, plus lawyer and court costs.